The researchers surveyed 169 chief financial officers at publicly-traded companies in the United States and did longer interviews with 12 of them. One of the questions they asked the executives was how investors can detect whether or not companies are lying about their earnings results.

The CFOs offered several red flags investors should watch out for when analyzing quarterly results.

#11: Lots of earnings volatility

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15 percent of CFOs said to watch this.

The executives surveyed said to watch out for "large volatility (wide swings) in earnings, especially without real change in business." Normally, fundamentals should drive earnings, and if they are clearly not lining up over and over, that's a bad sign.

#10: Receivables piling up

Receivables are payments owed to companies, and an unusual build in receivables could be a sign that companies are recognizing revenues that should be assigned to later quarters or that customer cash payments are coming in more slower than normal.

#9: Reporting using non-GAAP accounting metrics

GAAP stands for "generally accepted accounting principles" and is the set of rules that governs financial reporting in the U.S. The rules are meant to provide some consistency across different companies' financial statements. Using non-GAAP metrics is one way companies try to paint a different picture with regard to their earnings results.

#8: Sudden and/or frequent personnel changes in management

Jeff Skilling on the day of his 2006 sentencing.AP

15 percent of CFOs said to watch this.

Executives interviewed by the researchers stressed the importance of the people behind the numbers. One said, "I would start with the top management or senior executives. That sets the tone or culture which your internal accounting function will operate under.” Unexpected departures could therefore be a bad sign.

#7: Inventories piling up

Greater inventory levels mean a lower cost of goods sold in one period relative to the next period, which means that overstated inventories lead to overstated profits. This provides an incentive for managers to overstate inventories if they are struggling to hit earnings targets.

#6: Always beating analysts' earnings targets

A company that is always posting earnings results above analysts' estimates should be an obvious signal that earnings are being manipulated, especially because 93 percent of the executives surveyed said companies lie about earnings "because there is outside pressure to hit earnings benchmarks."

#5: Lots of write-offs

Steve Kovach, Business Insider

34 percent of CFOs said to watch this.

You hear a lot of companies reporting "adjusted earnings," which don't take into account special one-time items that affect financial statements. Large or frequent write-offs, write-downs, restructuring charges, or complex transactions should be a warning.

#3: Big accruals or changes in accruals

High accruals mean a company is booking a lot of revenue before the cash actually comes in. Some traders and investors even employ a trading strategy based on the accrual anomaly – in which they buy companies with low accruals and sell companies with high accruals – that appears to be quite profitable.